November 29, 2010 - Hungry For Power

Hungry for Power Until November 2000, the fledgling International Space Station derived power from two small sets of solar panels on the Zarya and Zvezda modules. The STS-97 mission, launched ten years ago this week, saw the delivery of the first of four 240-foot-long solar array panels—the largest ever flown in space—which provided thirty-two kilowatts of DC power and quintupled the power available to the outpost. The solar array and its P6 truss were originally mounted to the central Z1 truss, as seen here, but were redeployed in 2007 to their permanent position at the end of the 300-foot-long Integrated Truss Structure, which was assembled over several shuttle flights. STS-97 was also the first mission to dock with an inhabited ISS, whose Expedition 1 crew had been on board for a month.